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FOR REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS

Helping your Clients avoid Foreclosures with a Short Sale

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011.   10AM-1PM

Real estate professionals are invited to participate in a repeating 60-minute information session all about short sales. Participants will hear from Treasury officials, servicer representatives, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Arizona’s housing finance agency about the various liquidation options available to homeowners. Additionally, real estate professionals (with a third-party authorization in place) will have the unique opportunity to interface on a client’s behalf with the respective servicer. What a great opportunity to get difficult questions answered and move stuck cases forward. 

Phoenix Convention Center | 100 North Third Street | Phoenix, AZ 85004

This session is not open to homeowners.

One of the many advantages of being part of the NAR family is the opportunity to work with other NAR departments to create member benefits for REALTORS®.  Earlier this year, RPR began discussing the potential of leveraging RPR’s relationships in the lending industry to add value to a new BPOR Resource Certification program being designed by NAR’s Business Specialties group.

The result is a dynamic new BPOR Certification program being offered by NAR to its members.  The first class was conducted during the NAR Mid-Year meetings this past May in Washington D.C., and since that time over 1500 members have taken the one-day class.   As more information has been made available this summer over 75 providers around the country have scheduled classes in their local markets, with 31 scheduled for September alone.  The list is growing every day.

RPR’s Role

RPR has arranged for members who complete the certification to receive preferred status for BPO orders in their market, receive orders through our partnerships with leading BPO management companies and to make money.  Last month alone, the members receiving orders, and completing BPOs through this program made an average of $400 in additional income each.  In addition, as a technology company, we were also able to develop NAR’s first fully-automated ecommerce system to manage the certification process.  Through additional video instruction, RPR is also able to provide “best practices and techniques” straight from the lenders to the participants.  It is important to note that while RPR is highlighted throughout the course, you do not need to be in a current RPR live market in order to earn the BPOR Certification or to receive orders.

How to get started

• First find a class near you, or enroll online.
• Complete the one-day class and pass the exam
• Complete the one-time application fee at BPOR.org
• RPR will enroll you as a preferred BPO provider so that you can receive your orders, and update your new education status in NRDS

The cost of the in person class is set by each local provider.  The online class is $125, and the one time application fee is $199, with no annual renewal or additional fees, as long as you maintain membership in NAR.

What happens next?

Once you have completed these steps you are ready to receive orders as members of the preferred BPO panel.  You are also entitled to:

• Use the BPOR Certification in your personal marketing.
• Receive “best practices” updates from lenders
• Be included in the BPOR directory listing on REALTOR.org and REALTOR.com®

It has been an exciting and rewarding process to partner with NAR on a program that has such potential to bring such additional value to agents and brokers across the country.  Look for RPR to participate in many more initiatives in the near future, as well as the release of exciting projects this fall, such as the RPR Broker Tool Sets.

For information on all RPR features and benefits, go to: blog.narrpr.com, and to see what agents, brokers, MLSs and Associations are saying about RPR, join the national discussion at myrpr.com.

Sincerely,

Dale L. Ross
CEO-Realtors Property Resource

According to National Mortgage e-Alert, Short Sales, Foreclosures or Deed in lieu, does not make any difference.  FICO treats them the same way for purposes of reducing the credit score.   However, the higher your starting score, the more dramatic the effect.  If the initial credit score is about 780, the drop would be 90 – 110 points with a single missed payment on the mortgage.   The foreclosure or short sale would cause the drop to be 140 – 160 points.  There’s no significant difference in score impact between short sale/deed-in-lieu/settlement and foreclosure.  While a score may begin to improve sooner, it could take up to 7 – 10 years to fully recover, assuming all other obligations are paid as agreed. 

If you would like to see the FICO charts on three different scores ranging from 680, 720 and 780 and the effect from 30 days late to foreclosure and the amount of time it takes for the score to recover which can be as high as 7 – 10 years under certain circumstances go to  http://tinyurl.com/3eze2a5.

As Bank of America continues to enhance the short sale process, real estate agents will notice changes when initiating a transaction in Equator, beginning March 11.

What Is Changing:

New fields will be required when initiating short sales in Equator. Agents should be prepared to provide the following information regarding the loan and the homeowner’s situation:

• Loan Number
• New: Borrower First Name
• Borrower Last Name
• New: Property Best Contact Telephone
• Reason for Default
• New: Do you have a signed purchase contract?
• New: What is the property’s primary purpose?
• New: Who currently occupies the property?
• New: When was the property last occupied by the homeowner?

How This Change Will Improve the Short Sale Process:

Providing this information upfront will help Bank of America identify if the homeowner is eligible to participate in the federal government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA) program. If the homeowner is eligible, Equator will generate a message informing the agent that the homeowner must contact Short Sale Customer Care at 866.880.1232 to discuss their interest in the HAFA program. Although several attempts to contact the homeowner will be made, agents are encouraged to ask the homeowner to contact Bank of America as soon as possible, which will speed up the process.

Actions for Agents:

• Complete all required fields in the Initiation task of Equator.
• Agents who receive a “HAFA Action Required” message in Equator should inform the homeowner to call Short Sale Customer Care at 1.866.880.1232 as soon as possible to keep the process moving.
• If there is an offer on a HAFA eligible loan and the homeowner decides to opt out of HAFA, the homeowner will still need to contact Short Sale Customer Care at 1.866.880.1232 to confirm this decision, so the traditional short sale process can continue.

Additional Information:

For HAFA eligible loans, agents cannot move forward in the process until Bank of America has established contact with the homeowner. The traditional short sale process will continue for loans that are not eligible for HAFA. Although agents may be an authorized third party, per Treasury guidelines, the HAFA program requires the homeowner to independently acknowledge interest in a HAFA short sale.

Once contact has been established with the homeowner, they will be asked additional questions to confirm their eligibility for HAFA. These questions include: whether they have participated in a modification program, have a desire to sell their property and if they agree with the short sale program they are pursuing.

HAFA has many benefits for homeowners including:

• $3,000 assistance in relocation
• Deficiency waived and
• No promissory note/cash contribution

It is recommended that agents discuss all options, including HAFA, with the homeowner before marketing the property. If interested, homeowners should contact Short Sale Customer Care at 1.866.880.1232 to determine HAFA eligibility.  Please view the HAFA guide